PROVENANCE
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
Canadian Post-War & Contemporary Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 28, 2014, lot 38
The Collection of Torben V. Kristiansen, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Ian M. Thom, E.J. Hughes, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2002, pages 147 and 158
Jacques Barbeau, The E.J. Hughes Album: The Paintings, Volume 1, 1932 - 1991, 2011, reproduced page 47

In the 1960s, E.J. Hughes gained much recognition both in British Columbia and across Canada. Dr. Max Stern of the Dominion Gallery in Montreal was handling his work and avidly promoting him. In 1961, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation included Hughes in Five BC Painters, a documentary for television on British Columbia artists, and in 1967, the Vancouver Art Gallery mounted a retrospective of his work. He was awarded a Canada Council fellowship in 1963, which he used for sketching trips on the coast and into the Interior. In 1968, his work was included in the exhibition Man and His World in Montreal on the site of Expo 67.

Hughes's work of the 1960s is noted for its intense colouration and strength of composition. His astute powers of observation made him acutely aware of the elements of the scene he was painting, but he did not simply record what he saw. His keen eye was aware of patterns, textures, interesting contrasts and unusual atmospheres, and he chose to heighten these elements in his works. There is also a certain poignancy of feeling in his work, which derives from his great regard for nature. Hughes stated: “One of the main reasons I paint is because I think nature is so wonderful.… I feel that when I am painting, it is a form of worship. I see how wonderful nature is and how wonderful art is … and by trying to produce these works of art, I feel that I am just showing my appreciation of these creations.”

This striking scene is a view from the southwest tip of Vancouver Island. Looking South over Sooke Harbour possesses the deep colouration that distinguishes Hughes’s 1960s works. The forested far shore is depicted as almost black and the mountains beyond purplish-grey and black, making the white patches of snow and ice on the mountains stand out sharply. An eerie green glow above the mountains contrasts with the deep blue sky and reflects in the ocean in the central foreground. Such glows of light are often seen on the horizon at the end of the day in British Columbia.

The palette of predominantly blue and green is enlivened by the small red boat and the orange tones in the exposed rocky bluffs on the far shore. Hughes often included a human presence in his paintings, here suggested by the boat and more indirectly through the floating logs—likely escaped from a log boom under tow. Over the scene float strange, fascinating cloud forms—another feature of the 1960s work, in which his clouds sometimes have the quality of being sculpted—and the central elongated form fascinates the eye. On the BC coast, scenes in which colouration or lighting seems almost unbelievable are not uncommon, and Hughes’s treatment of atmosphere here triggers that feeling of awe that one feels in seeing such unusual light.

At the time of his 1967 retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery, curator Doris Shadbolt noted, “His private revelation is of a kind to resist the wearing of time.” This was a perceptive comment, as recognition for Hughes’s work continues to grow unabated today in appreciation of his unique vision. Hughes’s meticulous attention to detail, his choice of striking compositions carefully honed to bring out the essence of the landscape, and his intensity of vision imprint on the viewer’s consciousness. Looking South over Sooke Harbour embodies these refined qualities and resonates with Hughes’s great regard for the beauty of the West Coast.

For the biography on Torben V. Kristiansen in PDF format, please click here.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars